I've fitted the Arctic VGA
Silencer, which claims to operate the GPU at
much lower temperatures than the standard
cooler (and the desk fan's there too). I
thought
I might benefit from increasing the voltage to
the
GPU.

Um. I have an artic on a 9800 pro and can get
comforatably up to 430/370 (max is 445/380).

By ATitool or by eye?

Although variability is a factor in silicon in
general, your temps still seem low. Have
you got the high and low fan settings mixed
around? I keep mine on high all the time btw.

It's on high.

Also might be worth checking that you are
getting good thermal contact.

I never removed the shim from the card, but I cut
some slots in the VGA Silencer so it fits over the
outside. I certainly think it's not being held
off the core. I never managed to get the screws
to do up all the way to the rubber washers; I
couldn't get enough purchase on the little screw
heads and the clip seems too strong to bend. It
does seem firmly attached though. In your opinion
would that be significant?

Upping the voltage makes the card hotter, which
is more than likely making the heating problem
worse.

I was guessing I didn't have a heat problem, just
an inability-to-handle-the-frequency-problem.
That's why I thought a core voltage increase might
help - in a get-the-capacitors-charged-to-a-
threshold-voltage-faster sort of way. But I'm not
sure.

could be that you simply have a card with a hot
GPU? I have the same problem with my processor,
XP2800 which simply crashes if the temp goes
beyond 60 for more than a second, so any real
overclocking is out. Luck of the draw.

I can't really complain - I have some lucky system
memory PC2100 that runs ok at 164MHz with low
latency. (It will do Memtest at 175MHz if I
increase the latency. But either differences
between the test and WinXP or the extra stress the
OS puts on other things (processor, chipset,
AGP/PCI, I don't know) means I can't have a stable
system with that FSB).

I win some, I lose some. [At least I got an
R360].

Neil